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Chet Gresham

Targets and Touches

Week 9 Target Watch: AFC

Welcome to the AFC targets and touches for Week 9 of the NFL season. The NFC portion can be found by hovering that pointy thing over HERE and then “clicking.”

This week since I had a little more time due to the byes I’ve added a few wrinkles to the target stats. I have all the targets for each player since Week 2, and then in parentheses I have the total targets for the year followed by another parenthesized number, which is the average targets per game played for that player. Then below that I have the Red Zone targets and touches for each player. The wrinkle I added there was instead of just targets I’m given you both targets and rushing attempts. That allows us to see how many times a player was given an opportunity to have the ball inside the opponent’s 20 yard line. So of course the running backs will have larger numbers there. And if anything is confusing hit me up on twitter or in the comments and I will happily explain.

Editor's Note: Rotoworld's partner FanDuel is hosting a one-week $300,000 Fantasy Football league for Week 9. It's $25 to join and first prize is $25,000. Starts Sunday at 1pm ET. Here's the link.

Jacoby Jones beat out Torrey Smith for the target lead against the Steelers, but Smith still led the team in yardage. Jones has now passed Marlon Brown for snaps and is back as the #2 wide receiver.

Rice had another tough game, but these Steelers/Ravens games are always tough. He had five targets and 15 rushing attempts and totaled 72 yards. I’m not going to tell you those are great numbers, but against lesser opponents they would be much better.

Dallas Clark caught a red zone touchdown in this one and leads the team in red zone targets over the last five games. It doesn’t look like Clark is going away anytime soon, but his upside is severely limited by his slowness.

Stevie Johnson is back on top of the target list for Buffalo and came out of the Saints game with seven receptions for 72 yards and a touchdown, but he looked like he reaggravated a groin injury. Tight end Scott Chandler tied Johnson with 11 targets and had the exact same seven receptions for 72 yards, but missed on the touchdown. His 11 targets are by far the highest total in his career and follow two games with four and three targets and no games higher than six. It is interesting and something to keep an eye on, especially if Johnson can’t get back to 100%.

Running backs have totaled 42 looks in the red zone in comparison to 18 total for wide receivers and tight ends. C.J. Spiller has been hurt and didn’t play last week, but also hadn’t seen a red zone look the three weeks before. He very much needs to get healthy to be trusted again.

This game was the Andy Dalton and Marvin Jones show. Dalton threw for a career high five touchdowns and Jones caught four touchdowns, which would be the career high for many hall of fame wide receivers. The amazing thing is that Jones saw eight targets and caught each one of them to total 122 yards and those four touchdowns on just 13 routes run. Three of those routes came from the slot and he was targeted on each catching all three including two touchdowns. He works very well in small spaces hence the many red zone targets.

It looks like Jason Campbell knows who his playmakers are with 213 yards on nine receptions for Josh Gordon and Jordan Cameron. With those two it’s really about getting them the ball without turning it over and Campbell did a good job of that against a very good Kansas City team and that gave him another start.

Demaryius Thomas got back on the target wagon with his highest number since Week 3 and it paid off with seven receptions for 75 yards and a touchdown. Manning wasn’t throwing the ball particularly well down field so he let his teammates do much of the work after the catch. Wes Welker caught his ninth touchdown pass, which ties his career high, in the eighth game of the season. Welker’s route running coupled with Manning’s less than rocket arm and his still superior decision-making, Welker is in the perfect place.

With third string quarterback Case Keenum getting his first NFL start on the road amidst a sea of red in Arrowhead stadium the likelihood of Houston’s receivers putting up good numbers was slim. But instead of being overwhelmed Keenum took it to the number one defense in the league. He had his hiccups of course, but was able to give Andre Johnson and DeAndre Hopkins quality targets and quality fantasy points.

On the season T.Y. Hilton is averaging 7.9 targets per game and Reggie Wayne was at 8.4. With Wayne done for the season that leaves quite a few targets to be dispensed to Hilton, Darrius Heyward-Bey, Coby Fleener and the new #3 receiver, LaVon Brazill. There’s no way to know how things will shake out, but these guys aren’t going to see less targets going forward!

Trent Richardson and Donald Brown are splitting snaps fairly evenly, with Richardson at 39 and Brown at 36 last week. Brown will see more work in up-tempo pass first games like against the Broncos while Richardson is used more in lower scoring slow down games.

Hilton is usually more of a deep passing threat, but will be used in more ways now that Wayne is out, so he should see a few more red zone targets. Coby Fleener could benefit the most in this area, as he is already a red zone threat.

Welcome to the AFC targets and touches for Week 9 of the NFL season. The NFC portion can be found by hovering that pointy thing over HERE and then “clicking.”

This week since I had a little more time due to the byes I’ve added a few wrinkles to the target stats. I have all the targets for each player since Week 2, and then in parentheses I have the total targets for the year followed by another parenthesized number, which is the average targets per game played for that player. Then below that I have the Red Zone targets and touches for each player. The wrinkle I added there was instead of just targets I’m given you both targets and rushing attempts. That allows us to see how many times a player was given an opportunity to have the ball inside the opponent’s 20 yard line. So of course the running backs will have larger numbers there. And if anything is confusing hit me up on twitter or in the comments and I will happily explain.

Editor's Note: Rotoworld's partner FanDuel is hosting a one-week $300,000 Fantasy Football league for Week 9. It's $25 to join and first prize is $25,000. Starts Sunday at 1pm ET. Here's the link.

Jacoby Jones beat out Torrey Smith for the target lead against the Steelers, but Smith still led the team in yardage. Jones has now passed Marlon Brown for snaps and is back as the #2 wide receiver.

Rice had another tough game, but these Steelers/Ravens games are always tough. He had five targets and 15 rushing attempts and totaled 72 yards. I’m not going to tell you those are great numbers, but against lesser opponents they would be much better.

Dallas Clark caught a red zone touchdown in this one and leads the team in red zone targets over the last five games. It doesn’t look like Clark is going away anytime soon, but his upside is severely limited by his slowness.

Stevie Johnson is back on top of the target list for Buffalo and came out of the Saints game with seven receptions for 72 yards and a touchdown, but he looked like he reaggravated a groin injury. Tight end Scott Chandler tied Johnson with 11 targets and had the exact same seven receptions for 72 yards, but missed on the touchdown. His 11 targets are by far the highest total in his career and follow two games with four and three targets and no games higher than six. It is interesting and something to keep an eye on, especially if Johnson can’t get back to 100%.

Running backs have totaled 42 looks in the red zone in comparison to 18 total for wide receivers and tight ends. C.J. Spiller has been hurt and didn’t play last week, but also hadn’t seen a red zone look the three weeks before. He very much needs to get healthy to be trusted again.

This game was the Andy Dalton and Marvin Jones show. Dalton threw for a career high five touchdowns and Jones caught four touchdowns, which would be the career high for many hall of fame wide receivers. The amazing thing is that Jones saw eight targets and caught each one of them to total 122 yards and those four touchdowns on just 13 routes run. Three of those routes came from the slot and he was targeted on each catching all three including two touchdowns. He works very well in small spaces hence the many red zone targets.

It looks like Jason Campbell knows who his playmakers are with 213 yards on nine receptions for Josh Gordon and Jordan Cameron. With those two it’s really about getting them the ball without turning it over and Campbell did a good job of that against a very good Kansas City team and that gave him another start.

Demaryius Thomas got back on the target wagon with his highest number since Week 3 and it paid off with seven receptions for 75 yards and a touchdown. Manning wasn’t throwing the ball particularly well down field so he let his teammates do much of the work after the catch. Wes Welker caught his ninth touchdown pass, which ties his career high, in the eighth game of the season. Welker’s route running coupled with Manning’s less than rocket arm and his still superior decision-making, Welker is in the perfect place.

With third string quarterback Case Keenum getting his first NFL start on the road amidst a sea of red in Arrowhead stadium the likelihood of Houston’s receivers putting up good numbers was slim. But instead of being overwhelmed Keenum took it to the number one defense in the league. He had his hiccups of course, but was able to give Andre Johnson and DeAndre Hopkins quality targets and quality fantasy points.

On the season T.Y. Hilton is averaging 7.9 targets per game and Reggie Wayne was at 8.4. With Wayne done for the season that leaves quite a few targets to be dispensed to Hilton, Darrius Heyward-Bey, Coby Fleener and the new #3 receiver, LaVon Brazill. There’s no way to know how things will shake out, but these guys aren’t going to see less targets going forward!

Trent Richardson and Donald Brown are splitting snaps fairly evenly, with Richardson at 39 and Brown at 36 last week. Brown will see more work in up-tempo pass first games like against the Broncos while Richardson is used more in lower scoring slow down games.

Hilton is usually more of a deep passing threat, but will be used in more ways now that Wayne is out, so he should see a few more red zone targets. Coby Fleener could benefit the most in this area, as he is already a red zone threat.

Maurice Jones-Drew saw a ton of work in this one with 27 looks totaling 122 yards, but the Jaguars defense couldn’t stop dead squirrel from scoring on them. It was another high target day for Cecil Shorts and Justin Blackmon. Shorts fared better than Blackmon, but Mike Brown was the only receiver to get a touchdown. This was a tough matchup, so what they did get wasn’t too shabby, but us garbage-time fans were a little disappointed.

Jamal Charles failed to score a touchdown for the first time this season, but did manage to total 100 yards for the eighth straight game. He had to leave the game for a short time with a knee injury, so maybe he’d have been able to do more, but it was still a very good game as he had seven missed tackles. But the big target news is Dexter McCluster’s 10 targets. He saw a few more than usual due to Dwayne Bowe’s injured groin, but he had five in each of the two previous games. Over the last two he has 11 receptions for 137 yards and a touchdown. The problem is in the previous six games he’s had 12 receptions for 116 yards and no touchdowns. He’s in prove it mode for me for another game.

The run game got the job done in the first half with Lamar Miller rushing for a career high 89 yards on 18 carries and Daniel Thomas rushing for 47 yards on nine carries and catching a red zone touchdown, but they went away from the run in the second half and the Patriots came back.

Brandon Gibson caught his third red zone touchdown in the last two games, but then tore his patellar tendon ending his season. After that we saw more of Rishard Matthews and he had his high in targets with six.

Tom Brady completed just 13-of-22 passes for 116 yards, one touchdown and one interception. The only bright spot was Aaron Dobson who caught four of five targets for 60 yards and a touchdown. He saw 74% of the snaps to Kenbrell Thompkins’ 24%.

Stevan Ridley had a nice game with 14 carries for 79 yards and a touchdown, but continues to see less than half of the snaps. He had 22 compared to Bolden’s 30 and Blount’s 16. With Shane Vereen on his way back we could see even less of Ridley after Week 11.

After Terrelle Pryor started the game with a 97-yard touchdown run he had nowhere to go, but down and he very much did. He completed 10 of 19 passes for 88 yards (9 yards less than his first play!) and threw two interceptions and no touchdowns.

Darren McFadden was the red zone go-to player against the Steelers as he scored two touchdowns. His yards per carry wasn’t great with 24 carries for 73 yards, but it’s good to see him running strong and not getting injured in the process.

The Steelers’ offensive line is in a shambles and it showed both in the running and passing game. Amazingly Antonio Brown continues to put up big PPR numbers. He is now averaging eight receptions per game and is on pace for 128 for 1,440 yards.

Le'Veon Bell had a poor day running behind a line that gave him very little room, but he did see plenty of opportunities in the red zone and scored a touchdown. He should continue to get chances near the goal line.

Ryan Mathews showed up for the second straight game and topped the 100-yard mark and the 20 rushing attempt mark. The Chargers have been playing efficient and conservative football the last two weeks and it has been working for them. If they are able to continue that type of play we could see Mathews have more value than he has in the past. But as soon as they get down in a game they’ll go with Danny Woodhead for the most part. Both of their fantasy values will depend on the flow of the game and quality of the opponent.

Danny Woodhead has a crazy 22 touches inside the red zone this season. He was the goal line back on the Chargers first touchdown and then Mathews got a chance later in the game. As you can see, Mathews is barely an afterthought in the passing game.

Chris Johnson saved his fantasy day once again with a long catch and run for a touchdown. If you look at just his ground game you’ll find some scary stats. Let’s look! For the season he has 115 rushing attempts for 366 yards and no touchdowns. That’s 3.2 yards per carry. Most of his fantasy points are coming from two long receptions and if he were being used more in the passing game I’d be more inclined to like him going forward, especially with a pretty easy schedule, but I’m skeptical.

Delanie Walker leads the team with three touchdowns, which is somewhat telling of this offense. There is plenty of potential here and with a weak schedule in the second half of the season there will be some fantasy value.

Chris Johnson had 17 looks in the red zone the first four games and zero in the last three. Now Shonn Greene could be seeing an increase in playing time. Going to be hard for Johnson to do much with less touches and still no goal line looks.